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Carbon Capture and Storage is a Myth

Top 5 Reasons Carbon Capture

and Storage is a Myth

#1: CCS cannot deliver in time to avoid dangerous climate change

The earliest possibility for deployment of CCS on a large commercial scale is not expected before 2030. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) does not expect CCS to be commercially viable until at least 2050. Nor does oil giant Shell which "doesn't foresee CCS being in widespread use until 2050."

#2: CCS wastes energy

The technology uses between 10% and 40% of the energy produced by a power station. Wide-scale adoption of CCS is expected to erase the efficiency gains of the last 50 years and increase energy consumption by one-third.

#4: "Capture Ready" coal plants are pure greenwash

CCS is being used as an excuse by coal power companies and utilities to push ahead with plans to build new coal-fired power plants, branding them as "capture ready." Promises to retrofit are unlikely to be kept. Retrofits are very expensive and can carry such high efficiency losses that the plants become uneconomical.

#5: Storing CO2 underground can have unintended consequences

The world has no experience in the long-term storage of anything, let alone CO2. A 2006 United State Geological Survey (USGS) field experiment showed there is every chance that carbon dioxide will behave in ways that are totally unexpected.

The researchers were surprised when the buried CO2 dissolved large amounts of the surrounding minerals responsible for keeping it contained.